Millennium deal worth as much as $255.5m

Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it agreed to sell additional rights to its Integrilin heart drug to Schering-Plough Corp. in return for $35.5 million in cash and at least $170 million in royalties.

The deal, aimed at minimizing financial risk to Millennium, also lessens the Cambridge biotechnology company's control over what has been one of its most important drugs and represents a major strategic move by its new chief executive.

Schering-Plough will also pay $45 million to $50 million to buy drug inventories, the companies said.

The deal drew criticism from some analysts frustrated by the lack of detail concerning future royalty payments, though others praised the strategy. Company executives said the move was in the works before Millennium's founder and previous chief executive, Mark Levin, stepped down to be replaced by Deborah Dunsire recently.

Dunsire said the agreement will bring cash and guaranteed royalties that will help Millennium advance its Velcade cancer drug and other treatments still in development. ''It enables us to reduce our risk and have a steady revenue stream," she said. Also, Dunsire said, Schering-Plough is more focused on cardiovascular medicine.

The shift will eliminate 200 of Millennium's 1,450 positions, mainly Integrilin's 170-person sales force spread across the country. Many of those employees are likely to be hired by the larger New Jersey pharmaceutical company. The positions of about 30 marketing personnel, research scientists, and others at Millennium's Cambridge headquarters will also be eliminated, and the company likely will take an undetermined charge to pay severance costs for those not placed in new jobs.

The move was disclosed after the close of stock trading yesterday. Millennium shares have fallen 17 percent this year as the company tries to achieve its target of becoming profitable in 2006, excepting certain costs.

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998, Integrilin is injected to prevent the grouping of blood platelets that could form clots and clog coronary arteries. It is used to treat patients with severe chest pain and those undergoing procedures such as angioplasty. It was first developed by COR Therapeutics Inc. of San Francisco, purchased in 2001 by Millennium in a $2 billion deal.

Like other biotechnology companies that need larger partners to sell their treatments, COR had already struck a deal with Schering-Plough under which the two would share profits from domestic sales of the drug. Millennium had continued that arrangement, though in 2004 it reacquired the right to market Integrilin in Europe and then resold the rights to GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

Schering-Plough reported $325 million in Integrilin sales in 2004, up from $306 million in 2003.

But Millennium hasn't specified how much its Integrilin royalties have totaled to date. Yesterday it declined to talk about how much more money it might receive from Schering-Plough aside from minimum payments of $85 million annually in 2006 and 2007. Only ''extraordinary conditions" could reduce the payments -- for example, if Millennium reached a conflicting deal with another company or the supply of the drug was interrupted. Millennium will remain responsible for its manufacture.

Chief financial officer Marsha Fanucci said, ''We continue to believe in the upside potential of Integrilin."

Ross Kerber can be reached at kerber@globe.com.